Not sure if this one's been mentioned before, but I came across a developer the other day who've made several pieces of software that are useful to anyone studying Japanese (IMO).

The main one I've tried out is their software dictionary (comes with an abbreivated dictionary of 20,000+ words, but there's a 100,000+ dictionary that can be downloaded by registered users).

Anyway, it features a nice sleek design, and plenty of options for searching. You can type search queries in Kanji / Hiragana / Romaji and each word is well-detailed.

Look at the followign search for an example:

Here, i'd done a Romaji search for "Mukashibanashi" ( notice the "romaji search" checkbox). When you've done a search, all the matching words will appear at the bottom. The results are sorted in order of the closest match to your search.

Now, this is the great part. Clicking on any of the search results will give you a more detailed view of the word, containing, at the top, that word in Kanji and below it, the word in Hiragana (you can also toggle this display to Romaji if you prefer, as you can see i've done )

Now, try hovering your mouse cursor over one of the Kanji, as below:

Notice I've highlighted it in a peach colour so it stands out

Now if you look at the top-left box, you can view all the information for that Kanji, such as ON / Kun readings, meaning, radical group and number of strokes.

Very useful information to have, I think you'll agree.

Anyway, I can say it's been a great help to me so far and i've learned the meanings of and Kanji for several new words, such as "Kaze", "Kodomo" and of course, "mukashibanashi".

The trial version limits you to a 15 day trial and 250 searches, BUT that's more than enough for you to decide whether or not you want to buy it.

If you decide you do, it's only a measly $16 anyway (about £11 with VAT (uk) - which i was more than happy to pay myself.

Also, the "Read/Write Kanji" program they produce is highly recommended too, as it teaches stroke order (with animations) and tests you on ON / kun / romaji readings and meanings. It's also a great companion to the dictionary as you can look up the stroke order for new Kanji you've found.

I hope this can be of as much use to some of you as it has been to me, anyway.

Last edited by OT86 on Fri 01.06.2006 8:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

OT86,
whenever you say your own name, you do not put san, sensei, sama, dono, etc. It is haughty. Your partner will decide what suffix to use, depending on situation. If that suffix it too casual, you can then chide them for it.

Harisenbon wrote:
OT86,
whenever you say your own name, you do not put san, sensei, sama, dono, etc. It is haughty. Your partner will decide what suffix to use, depending on situation. If that suffix it too casual, you can then chide them for it.

I'm kind of thinking that's what he did. Instead of saying it was too casual he said to be less formal. I'm not an expert on Japanese culture, but wouldn't that be aceptable and similar to American culture where someone will say Mr. SoAndSo and that person will say "please, call me bob"

Yes, this program does just use the EDICT dictionary, which IS available for free on the internet, but from what I can tell there's no other non-commercial program that explains the Kanji in words as well. As far as Im aware, the other ones just translate the words into Romaji - which is fine if you want to just speak a word, but useless if you want to write it in Kanji. Please feel free to correct me if i'm wrong there.

And @ Harisenbon - Ask anybody who knows English and they'll tell you that saying "CALL ME <INSERT NAME HERE>" is a phrase used to communicate how you would like the listener to refer to you. It doesn't have any bearing on what I call myself.

I'm not speaking Japanese, but merely pointing out that IF he wants to address me in Japanese, I'd like him to put a -SAN after my name. I WASNT CALLING MYSELF -SAN.

Jesus, I know that you know more than me Harisenbon, but you're arguing over something pointless. I never have and never will refer to myself as -SAN when speaking Japanese, but if I'm telling someone what to call me in english, I'll tell them first.

Take it or leave it

If a Japanese person decided to address me as "-kun" instead of "-san", and I were offended by it - would I not say to them -

OT86,
I really didn't mean to start a fight with you, and I'm sorry it started to turn into that. I was just trying to send some advice. The whole thing is quite silly as we're talking about a mix of Japanese and English, and thus there are no rules for such.

I just wanted to point out that if you were to say that phrase in Japanese
オリバーさんとよんでください. then it would seem as if you were putting on airs and correcting the person. It does not have a friendly attitude, as it does in English.

That's all I wanted to say. I really didn't mean to attack you at all.

Harisenbon wrote:
OT86,
I really didn't mean to start a fight with you, and I'm sorry it started to turn into that. I was just trying to send some advice. The whole thing is quite silly as we're talking about a mix of Japanese and English, and thus there are no rules for such.

I just wanted to point out that if you were to say that phrase in Japanese
オリバーさんとよんでください. then it would seem as if you were putting on airs and correcting the person. It does not have a friendly attitude, as it does in English.

That's all I wanted to say. I really didn't mean to attack you at all.

Don't worry about it Harisenbon. I know what you mean with it, in any case saying your own name it is impolite to say -san. Also if you just ask a person 'call me... -san'.. I got to know by a Japanese person.

Yes, this program does just use the EDICT dictionary, which IS available for free on the internet, but from what I can tell there's no other non-commercial program that explains the Kanji in words as well. As far as Im aware, the other ones just translate the words into Romaji - which is fine if you want to just speak a word, but useless if you want to write it in Kanji. Please feel free to correct me if i'm wrong there.

really? i haven't seen one that doesn't... but i don't look to closely. the ( kanji compound / reading / translation ) part comes from EDICT. the ( kanji / readings / meanings ) part comes from KANJIDICT. example sentences and radical lookup are similarly supported by files from the same project.

the only thing i ever see missing is kana -> romaji conversion, which is a good thing not to have.

Tell you what: I am staying well away from Harisenbonsan! Seriously: my only justification for my User Name is that I created it for a birdwatching website, where users would not be Japanese speakers, let alone be aware of Japanese etiquette. I cannot cope with more than one user name: it might lead to an identity crisis. So even for theJapanesepage I've remained (in case you haven't worked it out) "Mr Twitcher" ("twitcher"as in: a birdwatcher obsessed with observing as many different species as possible). I hope it doesn't offend the Japanese experts. It was only meant tongue-in-cheek (what's that in Japanese please? Do the Japanese say things tongue-in-cheek? This could lead us back to original subject of dictionaries??)
Hikitsurisan